TVSquad

Remember the announcement from last summer that Comedy Central was going to pick up a Jon Stewart-produced pilot called Three Strikes? Well, it looks like Comedy Central has seen the pilot and decided to pass on the show, which follows an independent minor league team full of major league rejects. But in this world of viral video, pilots never die; they just get split into three parts and posted on YouTube, that's what. The pilot was "leaked" onto the service, and you can see all three parts right now, at least before Viacom orders YouTube to take it down.

Patrick Goldstein of the L.A. Times spoke to the show's writers, Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, about the "second life" phenomenon failed pilots experience these days. They have nothing but good things to say about their experience with Comedy Central, but both the writers and Goldstein wonder what the future holds for networks now that failed pilots like this one and Nobody's Watching have found an audience online.

Another State member makes good. Like Michael Ian Black, David Wain, Thomas Lennon and Michael Showalter before him, former sketch comedy troupe member Ken Marino has signed a pilot deal with Comedy Central.

Marino, who has been guesting on Reno 911 and Veronica Mars as of late, has signed to create Out of Bounds, a behind-the-scenes workplace comedy. The setting - a Long Island sports radio show. Marino will portray one of the hosts of "Ball Talk" - a small market show with big time aspirations. The funny comes from the hosts' extreme publicity stunts and interviews between an in-character Marino and the not-in-character star athlete guests.

Jon Stewart is becoming quite the mogul, isn't he? Not only does his production company, Busboy Productions, crank out the gigantic hit show The Colbert Report four nights a week, but Comedy Central also has a first-look development deal with the company. This means that whatever pilot script Jon and company develop, CC gets the first shot at it.

It looks like they like what Jon's been producing, as word comes that they've picked up a pilot for a fictional comedy called Three Strikes, which takes place in the world of minor-league baseball. So, if this gets made into a series, are we going to rename the network Jon Stewart's Comedy Central? I wonder how the boys from South Park would feel about that?